Medallion Rug Review - A Bazaar Of Quality Floor Art

The house we live in, built in 1912, is over 101 years old. Built as a hunting lodge for the vice president of Southern Pacific Railroad, it still maintains the dark wooded interior feel of years past.

An eclectic array of memorabilia lines the walls and corners of the day room: an old diver’s helmet, a Chinese mini drawer chest, a piano and an ancient sofa; over by the kitchen wall, a set of carbonation siphons in their box, a baby rocking chair and captain’s barometer.

By taking a look around the living room, you’d quickly gather that just maybe, the Dos Equis man could very well live here. Otherwise, without a fitting area rug on the wooden floor, the house seemed better suited to some hardscrabble pioneer family who you’d find making jelly, say, or cooking moonshine on the back porch.

The room before the carpet

One early morning, Lawrence - lord of the house - summoned me up to the office. On his large monitors he was toggling between a red Persian rug and a deep green Indian carpet. “We’re gonna get one of these two”, he fortuitously announced.

Images received we choose our rug from

For me this was early but for him it was something closer to midday. And for me until that moment, what he did in his office at 7 am would have been anyone’s lucky guess. “Which one do you like better?”, he asked. I pondered and couldn't quickly decide. “The red is great but is also common”, he continued. “I think I like the green, it matches the fireplace”.

New Contemporary Indian Rug

Green. The word is one of the few in the English language that has the power to evoke so much to me, reason unknown. I took a closer look at the area rug. All at once, the motifs embellishing this functional work of art took life next to the fireplace. Lawrence chose it and it arrived two days later in a safe and sturdy plastic wrap.

This Indian rug beautifully compliments the fireplace

Indian carpets are known for their high density of knotting. I know this because I had just read it on the educational section of Medallion Rug’s website. We carefully spread out and center this magnificent work of art on the floor, next to the fireplace. It is a wool pile Indian rug of Polonasic design. Total knot count - 3,098,368. That is an incredible amount, I thought, and imagined the shop worker responsible for it talk about carpet making and how it was bestowed upon her family as a great virtue.

A functional piece of art

We stood there, taking in this obstinate beauty, when Tabi, our sweet home persocom showed up gasping, and immediately started to pose with the area rug as if scheduled for a shoot. “It’s so much comfier in here now”, she said, and we couldn't agree more. The character in the texture and design is remarkable. And as we were told that a rug such as these can take up to two years to make by hand, I started to understand how - not unlike other works of art - handmade oriental rugs will almost always increase in value over time.

We look forward to enjoying this beautiful addition for many years to come.